Ethics

The context of vulnerable communities in post-conflict societies, and the relationship between these communities and the police, is one such aspect.

Another aspect, linked to this first but also independent of it, is about the rights of informants to privacy, dignity, and confidentiality. Our informants should give their expressed and informed consent to participation, meaning that they need to understand our study, its risks and benefits.

A third aspect requiring attention to ethics regards the security of researchers and of informants. Fieldwork is conducted in conflict-ridden, volatile and unstable areas.

To meet these and other ethical challenges in a systematic and coherent manner, the project has set up a comprehensive system for assessing and handling them.

The General Assembly – the project consortium’s highest governance body – has agreed a set of ethical guidelines

The project has an Independent Ethics Monitoring Board which annually conducts ethics reviews, and which can be asked for advice by anyone at any given time.

The project has in addition an internal Ethics Committee, consisting of members of the project consortium.